Scenes of Unofficial SXSW: Austin 2016 Says I Just Kicked Your Ass

Too much sweat, too much booze, and even more music: Welcome to Texas, baby.

Well, here we are again, at SXSW, the great land of bands, brands, and opportunities. So far, we’ve managed to receive only three free tote bags, one of which was officially issued by the festival; so needless to say, things in the “swag” department have been a bit disappointing. But hey, who cares! We’re here for the music, baby, and boy oh boy, our first couple days on the ground did not disappoint. On top of losing our absolute minds to Metro Boomin’s headlining DJ set at Fader Fort (in which he brought out DJ Esco to dance like this and Lil Uzi Vert to rap like this), one of the best things about SXSW is that there’s a shitload of stuff happening constantly so you are incredibly overwhelmed because you never quite know what exactly you’re supposed to be doing even though you want to be doing everything. It’s kind of like if you walked into an IRL version of a Twitter timeline that follows wayyyyy too many people, yet somehow favorites every dang tweet that exists.

So keeping in mind that you can probably find whatever you want on the internet about the “big stuff” that's been happening at SXSW, we sent intrepid photographer Steven Ruud out on the ground (and to the bridge) to catch all the good shit that wasn’t “official” and therefore “alt” and “incredibly cool” and “other stuff we can put in quotation marks to make it seem both ironic and sincere.” Check out his beautiful photos below, which include kickass bands like Sheer Mag (above), Downtown Boys, Power Trip, Thee Ohh Sees, and more.

If you’re in Austin, look out for Noisey editors Eric Sundermann and Kyle Kramer wandering the streets like lost tweets. Kyle will probably be wearing a Future T-shirt. Eric will be looking for a phone charger. Here's to tacos and margs!

American Sharks

BLXPLTN

Downtown Boys on the bridge

GLLAASS

Nosefratu

Power Trip

Riverboat Gamblers

The Spits

Thee Ohh Sees

US Weekly

Xetas

Annabelle Chairlegs

Crowds, baby

Daddy Long Legs

Guantanamo Baywatch

MPHO

No Bunny

Party Static

Pleasers

Pookie and the Poodelz

Slick

Sylvain Sylvain & Bushwick Bill

Steven Ruud is a photographer based in Austin. Follow him on Instagram.